


The Ultimate Christmas Present

by Nugiha



Series: The Ultimate Christmas Present [1]
Category: Degrassi, Degrassi the Next Generation, InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, The Bold and the Beautiful, Tiger Cruise (2004)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Christmas, Comedy, Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, Friendship, Gen, To Read, To Rec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-02 19:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2823809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nugiha/pseuds/Nugiha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A boy steals a weather machine from Santa Claus, but things take a bad turn when a snow day becomes an out of control snowstorm that prevents his father from coming home for Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ultimate Christmas Present

**Author's Note:**

> Title: The Ultimate Christmas Present  
> A/N: AU fic, strictly written for fun. The ages are Jari 13 and Joey 8. For story purposes, everyone mentioned(Jari's friends/various students from Degrassi) are all either thirteen or fourteen while Craig's little sister Angie is the same age as Joey.  
> Fandom(s): Degrassi, Tiger Cruise, Bold and the Beautiful, Inuyasha  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
> Summary: A boy steals a weather machine from Santa Claus, but things take a bad turn when a snow day becomes an out of control snowstorm that prevents his father from coming home for Christmas.  
> Rating/Warnings: G. OC, OOC, Violence, and etc.  
> Pairing(s): None  
> Cast  
> Jari Coleman...Chase Ellison  
> Jari's mother, Diane Coleman...Lisa Dean Ryan  
> Jari's father, Mike Coleman...Tom McCafferty  
> Jari's younger brother, Joey Coleman...Jansen Panettiere

Wilmington, MA The Coleman Home

"I can't believe Christmas vacation is almost here." a preteen boy named Jari Coleman said as he lounged on the couch with his friends. His friends spent so much time at his house that they all practically lived there, in fact _some_ of their parents had talked to his and actually asked them when or if their kids would ever come home. Most of his friends were either the same age or a year older than him, all of them had known each other since pre-k but some were closer than others. In fact teenagers Emma Nelson, Manny Santos, Liberty Van Zandt, JT Yorke, and Toby Isaacs shared a tight bond while a another was also shared with Paige Michalchuk, Hazel Aden, Gavin 'Spinner' Mason, and Jimmy Brooks.

"But we still have to do that english essay." whined JT as he took the TV remote from Emma and was about to change to something else, he and the others were watching the news and on the news person was a dull and boring woman named Brooke Logan, it was annoying just to hear her voice.

"You haven't started it yet, have you?" Emma asked JT as she gave her friend a knowing look, JT was far from dumb, but the blond knew that her friend liked to put things off until the last minute.

JT then put his arms behind his head and leaned back on the couch, his seat was between Emma and Jari's. "Why would I start it Em? The X-box was calling me."

"Of course it was." Liberty commented sarcastically as Emma leaned her head back on one of JT's arms.

Jari's parents, Mike and Diane Coleman then walked past the livingroom from two different rooms, both of them were talking on the phone about work related things, Diane had set a plate of waffles on the counter as she continued chatting on the phone. Mike held up two ties and asked which one was appropriate for work and Diane told him the red one due to it being more Christmasy, before the two of them went back to their respective phone conversations, Diane was interrupted from her conversation when Jari's younger brother, Joey Coleman(8) grabbed onto her leg to get her attention.

"Mom, I lost my GameBoy." complained Joey.

Diane looked down at him but didn't say anything until she heard her youngest son mention it again. "Joey, I'm really busy right now. Try checking your room again."

Jari was still watching the TV. "It's probably somewhere really obvious Joey."

"We can help you look for it." offered Emma.

"Really?" Joey asked, wanting to believe that Emma wasn't just messing with him, he just had to find his game.

"Yeah, it's no problem." a preteen named Clare Edwards told him, nods of agreement came from preteens Eli Goldsworthy, Adam Torres, Alli Bhandari, Emma's younger god brother, Conner Deslauriers, KC Guthrie, Jenna Middleton, Wesley Betenkamp while Dave Turner was looking bored until he was nudged by Alli and then he agreed to help as well.

"Let's go look." suggested Toby and he and Joey then walked out of the room followed by Emma, Clare, Eli, and the others.

"Waffles." a preteen named Danny Van Zandt muttered as he licked his lips, seeing a platter of waffles placed on the stove. Danny's older sister, Liberty was giving her brother a pointed look while snickers came from teenagers Toby's stepsister Ashley Kerwin, Craig Manning, Marco Del Rossi, Sean Cameron, Jay Hogart, and Alexandra 'Alex' Nunez. Danny then walked over to the waffles in the kitchen and put them in a plate before drowning them in syrup and whip cream.

Liberty scolded her younger brother. "Slow down Danny."

Jari was laughing along with a few of others like Jay and Alex while Liberty continued lecturing Danny who didn't seem to be listening. "I'm going to call Steffy over." he then picked up his phone and called a close friend of his named Steffy Forrester. "Steffy, come on over, I have something to tell you." Steffy then replied that she'd be over in five seconds before hanging up the phone, she actually lived next-door and their families did alot of things together as a result such as barbeques, parties, and etc.

Emma then walked back into the room followed shortly by Joey and her friends, KC and Jenna had spotted Joey's GameBoy under his bed, they had spent barely five minutes having to look. Joey along with Craig's younger half-sister, Angela 'Angie' Jeremiah who was around Joey's age made their way into the kitchen where the two of them mirrored Danny's actions with their plates of waffles. "Steffy's coming over?"

"Yeah." Jari responded to Emma. "She'll be here in five seconds."

The doorbell rang and Jari ran to the door to open it as Mike and Diane yelled at him to walk despite both of them being on the phone and then he and Steffy walked into the livingroom, Jari then greeted his friend with a hug before telling her about a party that their friends, Maddie Dolan and Oliver Jones were throwing at Maddie's house.

"We're actually going to be popular!" beamed Steffy while some such as Jay, Sean, and Alex snorted in the background at the mention of popularity.

"That's the dream." Jari replied. Both of them were excited at the thought of being popular and Jari also told Steffy that he told Maddie that they would come two hours early to help set up which would get him time alone with Maddie and her time alone with Oliver.

***

Outside Later That Day

"That was a good lie in class." Steffy complimented Jari as the two exited the school, school had just ended and the duo were on their way to meet up with their friends, Jari had lied to the teacher and told her about the English paper that he had yet to write. The teacher had called on Jari in class while he was daydreaming and writing Maddie's name over and over in his notebook forcing him to come up with a lie on the spot, tt seemed that Jari decided to take a page from JT's book and procrastinate on the assignment. "Too bad you didn't actually do the paper."

"A little white lie never hurt anybody." Jari shrugged his shoulders and then he checked his watch. "I still have to get Joey a Christmas present."

"I don't think you have time."

"Yes I do, I know a shortcut that Joey and his friends take through the woods all the time."

Steffy then grabbed her bike off the rack. "But you've never taken it yourself?"

"Relax Steffy, it'll be quick." Jari assured his friend, wanting to ease her concerns even though he was a bit nervous himself at having to take the shortcut, he then got his bike off the rack. The only thing that they were waiting for was for their friends to show up, a few minutes went by before they did and then they all took off towards the woods.

***

The Woods

"We're almost there." Jari said as his friends biked through the woods, though he was pretty sure that was a lie, after a mile went by, the short preteen had lost track of where they were but didn't want his friends freaking out on him. He then stopped his bike after reaching a clearing, and was shot curious looks by Steffy, Emma, Manny, Liberty, Clare, and Alli while others looked annoyed and began to complain such as Paige, Hazel, Ashley, teens Terri McGreggor and Ellie Nash plus preteens Clare's older sister Darcy Edwards, Mia Jones, Holly J. Sinclair, Adam's older stepbrother Drew Torres, Mark 'Fitz' Fitzgerald, Owen Milligan, Bianca DeSousa, Chantay Black, Fiona Coyne, and Fiona's fraternal twin Declan Coyne.

"You don't even know where we are, do you?" Emma asked Jari.

Jari sighed but then noticed a path between a two leafy bushes. "Hey, check this out."

"What is it Jari?" wondered Drew curiously, he looked over at preteens Alli's older brother Sav Bhandari, Peter Stone, Leia Chang, Blue Chessex, and Jake Martin but the quintet only shrugged their shoulders in response. "What are we checking out?"

"Come on." Bianca noticed Jari push the two leafy bushes out of the way and the others follow him down the path, Drew along with herself, Fitz, and Owen were lagging behind the rest. She then looked at Fitz who nodded and gave Drew a rough push forward, the three then caught up to Jari and the others and noticed them standing in front of what looked to be an old shack.

Emma looked apprehensive upon seeing the shack. "Jari, there is reason why they built this shack in the middle of nowhere. Does the word privacy mean anything?"

"Forget that, let's see who lives there." Jari then got off of his bike and pushed it to the side as he walked over to the window and tried to peek inside but found himself too small. "Umm, a little help here?" Spinner had been talking to their friend, Craig Manning before the two boys walked on either side of Jari and lifted their friend into their air.

"What do you see?" Manny asked Jari.

"He's not even close to the window Manny." said Peter.

"Can you move me more into the window?" Jari asked Craig and Spinner and then the two of them then moved Jari closer to window so that he could get a better view of the inside. "It looks like it's an old man and he's working on something." he continued to look for a few more minutes until the old man began to turn around. "He's turning around!" Craig and Spinner then dropped him and the trio ran onto the side of shack with the others to hide.

Craig then peeked out of the bushes and saw the old man come outside to throw something in the garbage and then storm off. "It looks like he just threw away something." he told the others.

Dollar signs then appeared in the eyes of Jay, Spinner, Alex, Fitz, Bianca, Owen, preteen Johnny DiMarco. "Let's go see what it is!" insisted Bianca as she got out of her hiding place and pulled Jari along with her as they all walked over to the garbage can. Jay and Sean then reached into the garbage and pulled out a weird-looking device as she, Emma, Jake, teens Kelly Ashoona, Rick Murray and preteens Jane Vaughn and Imogen Moreno shot them skeptical looks. "What in the heck is that?"

"I don't know." Jari told the rebel as he took the device from Jay.

"You should take it." insisted Jay. "It's not like the old man wants it anymore."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Even though the old man threw it out, Jari still felt that it was the old man's property and it wouldn't be right to take it.

"He's right Jay, let's just put it back." Emma said, though she knew Jay liked taking things that didn't belong to him and probably wouldn't listen, sometimes it still surprised her that she called Jay a friend. Alex then called Emma a 'cause girl' and hissed at her shut up causing an argument between the two girls before Manny, Liberty, Paige, and Ellie managed to calm them down, Jari and the others(who chose not to intervene) were used to Emma and Alex fighting and didn't really pay them no mind since Alex loved annoying Emma.

"Don't listen to Greenpeace." Jay continued, calling Emma by the special nickname he had given her. "The old man doesn't want it anymore, you should just take it."

Jari then began to place the device back in the trash and was given smiles from Emma, Anya, Clare, and Leia for doing the right thing. "Emma's right, maybe I should just put it back." Jay the began to prey on Jari's curiosity by asking what was better, taking the device and letting it rot in the  trash or taking it for himself an seeing what it does, even though he  knew it was morally wrong, that didn't stop Jari from being curious. It took some heavy convincing from himself, Sean, Spinner, Alex, Bianca, and KC before Jari's resolve started to weaken."Okay." the small preteen then placed the device on a small compartment in front of his bike and then got on before he and his friends biked away from the shack and tried to find their way out of the woods.

***

The Coleman Home

"I wonder what it does." said Fiona as she sat at a table in Jari's room with Holly J, Emma, Mia, Craig, Declan, Sav, and Adam. After finally picking up a Christmas present for Joey, they had arrived back at Jari's house with the machine, the others had stayed downstairs so the only ones up there were the nine of them. Jari's mother was in the kitchen when they had come in and she yelled at them to walk after seeing them go upstairs. They slow walked for the first few steps but the second Diane turned her head, the group started running as fast as they could to get to Jari's room. The device was placed on the table near Jari's bed and now the nine of them were gathered around the table.

"Let's find out." Jari eagerly said as he pushed a button on the device, nothing happened at first, but when he looked up, there was a cloud hovering over the group. The others followed his gaze and the suddenly droplets of rain began pouring from the cloud.

"Push another button, maybe it'll turn it off." Emma told Jari, not only was she freaked about by this device, but they shouldn't even have it in the first place. Personally she blamed Jay for talking Jari into it, not that the latter was extremely gullible, but being friends with Jay did get Jari and the others in trouble sometimes.

Jari shook his head, not knowing if he would make the situation worse or not, he was sure his mother would have a fit at the sight of the hardwood floor in his room slowly getting more and more soaked. "No way Emma, I'm not touching that thing."

"I'll do it." Sav then pushed another button on the device, everything was fine for a minute, but then the rain began to come down harder completely soaking them and Jari's room.

Holly J then glared at Sav before hitting him in the shoulder. "You idiot!"

"Calm down HJ." Jari said, knowing how bad Holly J's temper could be. "We can fix this." he knew that if he didn't do something, his room would wind up flooded, he then pulled out a part of the machine which moved the rain cloud away from him and his friends.

Holly J shot Jari a warning glare. "You'd better." she said.

"That is so cool." marveled Fiona, she was glad that the cloud wasn't soaking her anymore, it didn't even occur to her that by moving the rain cloud, the only thing her friend was doing was spreading the water around his room.

"Too bad about your room though Jari." Craig said nonchalantly.

Loud poundings then sounded from the door, distracting the group for the moment, Mia then tapped a button of machine which turned the machine off and caused the rain cloud to disappear, the door then opened and Holly J and Declan moved in front of the machine while the others moved to the door.

"Joey! What are you and Angie doing in my room?" demanded Jari.

"What's that?" Joey tried to peek over his older brother's shoulder. "Is that my Christmas present?"

"No!" exclaimed Jari, he had no idea what his brother would do with the information of him having a weather machine and didn't want him knowing about.

Joey started to speak but was cut off as Jari, Emma, and Mia shoved him out of the room before doing the same to Angie after the young girl got a scolding by Craig. "Hey, let us in!" he demanded as his brother closed the door on him and then Jari, Craig, Emma, and Mia guarded the door as Joey and Angie started pounding on it.

"Mom!" Jari screamed. "Joey's bugging us."

"No, I'm not." denied Joey. Diane then yelled at him to come downstairs, he protested but soon did what his mother asked and went downstairs with Angie right behind him. Once Jari and his friends were sure that they were gone, the group went back to the table and sat around the machine.

"Now what?" Sav asked curiously as everyone looked at the machine.

"I wonder what this one does." Declan then pressed a button and a fierce wind swirled around the room knocking various things off of Jari's bed, dresser, and etc., it took a couple of seconds of being blown around before in an effort to help, Adam pressed another button on the machine and then an earthquake started making Jari's room even worse than it already was.

"Adam!" exclaimed Sav as he grabbed onto Holly J and Fiona in order to keep both him and the girls on their feet.

Jari pressed a button on the machine, stopping the earthquake, and glared at a nervous looking Declan and Adam. "Way to go."

"Look what you did!" Mia exclaimed to the boys.

"Okay, we won't touch that one next time." Declan said.

"No you won't Declan, now let's press the snow one." Fiona told her brother and then pressed a button on the machine and a gentle snow started to pour around the room, she awed for a few minutes with the others, suddenly an idea came to her as she turned off the machine. "I have an idea."

"Do I even want to know what you're thinking Fiona?" Jari asked, he didn't like the look in Fiona's eyes, it usually meant that whatever was on her mind was going to get them in the kind of trouble that Jay, Alex, Spinner, Fitz, Owen, and Bianca usually got into.

Fiona smirked and got behind Jari and wrapped one arm around his neck while using her other hand to rub his head. "What if there was a way for us to take Christmas vacation a day early? A snow day?"

Jari laughed, surprising Fiona with his reaction. "You're crazy Fi, we can't do that!"

"Do you know how much trouble we could get in?" asked Emma, figuring that Fiona had lost her mind.

"It's actually not a bad idea." Craig said. "We would get two extra weeks on that dumb English paper."

"Speak for yourself Craig, I'm almost done with mine." scoffed Mia.

"So am I." Jari added, even if he wanted to use the machine for a snow day, he was almost done with his paper and wouldn't need the extra weeks. Fiona was about to respond when Jari's room door and Diane walked in, she looked around the room and then at her son and his friends with a mixture of shock and anger. "Mom!"

Diane put her hands on hips as she gaped at her son. "What have you been doing in here?"

"Nothing!" Jari said as Holly J grabbed a jacket and covered the machine with it.

"Everything's fine Mrs. Coleman." Emma added nervously.

"Just peachy." Fiona put on a fake smile and pinched Holly J and Mia in order to get the girls to do the same.

"Look at this mess." seethed Diane. "I'm stressed out enough with work and you go and do this?"

"It wasn't his fault." Adam defended Jari before being elbowed in the ribs by Fiona.

"We'll clean it up!" Jari then ran out of the room with his friends in order to get towels, napkins, and a mop.

***

The Coleman Home Livingroom

"I'm sorry Dad." Jari sighed as he held the phone to his ear later on that evening, Mike had left for a business trip earlier and was expected to return two days before Christmas Eve, unluckily for Jari, Diane had told Mike about he and his friends messing up his room earlier. "But we cleaned everything up."

Even before getting on the phone, the small preteen _knew_ that his father was disappointed in him. It took only a few minutes for he and his friends to clean up the mess that the weather machine had made of his room, while Craig distracted his mother, Fiona took the weather machine and placed it out on a flower bed located just outside the window of Jari's room with Holly J's help. Fiona had turned on the machine but nothing happened, no snow, the machine just kept whirling around. Everyone just assumed that the weather machine didn't work outside and that Fiona's idea of a snowday wouldn't happen.

"You should know better to act like that." Mike continued to scold Jari on the phone, just because he and Diane allowed his son to have his friends around practically all the time, it _didn't_ give him an excuse to act up and tear up his room.

Diane was practically in a trance as she looked out of the livingroom window. "Oh my..."

"Mom?" Joey was concerned and then walked up to his mother only to be caught in the same trance that she was in after looking out of the window. "Wow."

"Kids, it's snowing!" Diane exclaimed as she continued to look at the _snow_ flakes pour down outside.

Jari sighed as he heard his father's voice continue to scold him. "Mom just said it's-" he stopped talking as he saw the snow falling out of his window. "It's snowing!" the small preteen then dropped the phone on the couch and ran over to Diane and Joey, Diane then put her arms around her son's necks and pulled the two as they continued to look out of the window not paying any attention to Mike's voice calling for them in the background.

Emma, Manny, and Liberty then walked into the livingroom.

"Did you guys know that's it snowing outside?" Emma asked the Coleman's. Jari then rushed over to Emma and hugged her before he and the three girls walked to the corner of the livingroom out of earshot from his mother and brother.

"It worked Emma!" Jari beamed, he _couldn't_ believe that the machine had actually worked, looks like Fiona's wish for an early snowday would come true afterall.

Emma smiled as Jari hugged Manny and Liberty, it seemed that her friend's excitement was practically contagious. "This is so great."

"A white Christmas in Wilmington." Liberty remarked as Manny, Jari, and Emma looked at her. "This type of thing is rare, almost unheard of."

"We've never had one before." mentioned Jari.

"Well what are we waiting for guys? Let's celebrate!" Manny then tugged on Jari's arm as Liberty grabbed Emma's and the four of them walked over to Diane and Joey and all of them gushed over them actually being able to have a white Christmas this year.

***

Outside The Next Day

"I still don't think the snow is a good idea." Rick told Jari as the two walked outside to meet up with Spinner, Jimmy, and Toby, the five of them were the _only ones_ who had wanted to snowsled, they along with the others had just watched the news which announced that school had been cancelled, and now the two boys had changed into warmer clothing before heading out to have fun.

Jari knew that Rick was one of the more intelligent kids in school and resembled it with him wearing glasses, and was probably thinking more about the consequences of using the weather machine _rather_ than the positive. "We've never a had a snowday before, this is a good thing." he tried to assure his friend even though the small preteen shared some of the same doubts that Rick was having.

"But what if someone figures out that you caused it?" Rick inquired, he could just imagine the field day that the media would have if they ever figured it out, his friend wouldn't have a normal life for a long time.

"I didn't cause it Rick, I mean it started at my house but technically it was Fiona and Holly J."

"But you didn't stop it though."

"Are you two losers coming or not?" Spinner asked from where he was about to snowsled downhill on of several wooden boards that he, Toby, and Jimmy had found lying around.

Rick then glared at Spinner for the nickname while Jari only shrugged his shoulders, he had a 'healthy' frenemy relationship with Spinner, Jay, and Alex, while the trio teased Rick and made cruel jokes at his expense, they would come to his defense against any _outsider_ who did the same.

Jimmy chuckled a bit as he looked over at Rick and Jari who were making their way over. "Come on dudes."

"We're coming Jimmy." Jari said as he and Rick finished walking up the hill that the boys were planning on sledding down from, Jimmy and Spinner could be _very_ impatient when they wanted to be. "You know you could've gone already and then gone again after we came up."

Jimmy smirked at Jari and then readied his snowsled. "Why would we do that? It's no fun beating you with a headstart."

"It wouldn't be honorable." added Toby.

"I wouldn't have minded it." informed Spinner, Jari wasn't too surprised, knowing that even though Spinner did the right thing in the end when it came to making good or bad decisions, it could take him a _while_ before figuring exactly what that was.

"Wouldn't expect anything less from you Spinner." Jari remarked.

"I know Jari." said Spinner before grinning.

"Are you ready?" Toby asked Rick.

Rick nodded his head, he was closer to Toby than the others, it had been that way since they all met as toddlers. "First one down the hill gets Darcy under the mistletoe."

Spinner gaped at Rick before realizing that he _couldn't_ and _wouldn't_ let that happen. "Well it won't be you two losers!" he exclaimed before snowsledding down the hill followed quickly by Jimmy.

"You cheated Spinner." Jari called out to his friend, he then snowsledded down the hill with Rick and Toby, not seeing any harm in the snowday like Rick had been suggesting earlier. He was having fun, the type of fun that wasn't possible without having a snowday.

***

The Coleman Home A Few Days Later

"I think your mom is here." Jari told Steffy as the two sat in his room with the rest of his friends one night. It had been a fun few of days of snowsledding, shoveling snow out of the driveways, snowball fights, and etc., it was _still_ snowing outside and their fun had ended for the day. Jari was especially excited and knew Joey was to since Mike was supposed to be coming home tomorrow, after he came home, the family had plans to go out and pick up a Christmas tree.

"Come on." Steffy smiled at her friend and they went downstairs with the rest following behind them where they saw Steffy's mother, Taylor Forrester was standing in front of the driveway.

"There you are." Taylor smiled at her daughter and her friends who gave her looks of interest as she continued talking. "The roads have been a mess and when I finally get a new SUV, I realize that I can't even drive it."

Diane then walked in with sad look on her face as she placed the phone back on the hook. "Jari! Joey! I have something to tell you." she said and then Joey came downstairs and stood next to Jari as the two walked in front of her mother. "That was your dad, the storm reached out to San Francisco and now the flights have been cancelled."

"No!" Joey was devastated. "What if he doesn't make it home for Christmas?"

"He will Joey." said Jari, he didn't trust his words, but he didn't like seeing his brother upset.

"You don't know that."

"Trust me, he will." Jari assured Joey, his mother's announcement seemed to have broken something inside him as the _guilt_ started to pour throughout his skin, the preteen couldn't believe that he had allowed this to happen.

Steffy then nudged her friend to get his attention. "Mom, I think I left my hat upstairs."

Eli quickly caught on to what his friend was doing. "We'll help you look for it." he then headed upstairs with Jari and Steffy followed shortly by Clare, Alli, and Jake while the others stayed downstairs.

"This is all my fault." realized Jari.

"No, it isn't Jari." Eli said, trying to comfort his friend.

"Yes it is." said Alli before being shot a harsh look from Clare, she wasn't exactly known for being tactless. "I mean don't worry about it Jari, it's fixable"

Eli placed a hand on Jari's shoulder, realizing that what Alli had said hadn't made him feel any better. "You know what you have to do right?"

"Yeah I know." sighed Jari as he walked over to his window, opened it, and then turned off the weather machine only to realize that _nothing_ had happened. He looked up at the sky and it continued to snow and he almost panicked before something that Fiona had said _occured_ to him.

"It didn't work." Clare said.

Emma seemed to have followed Jari's line of thinking as she answered Clare's inquiry. "It takes a while remember?"

"I'm glad we stopped it." Jari said, thinking about what could've happened if they didn't shut the weather machine off when they did. "You think I don't want my father home for Christmas?"

"The snow's the only thing keeping him in SF, once it stops, everything will be fine." Emma assured Jari, the cause girl didn't want her friend beating himself up over the snowday, he shouldn't even be blaming himself, the ones to _blame_ where Fiona and Holly J.

"Yeah, your father's going to be home for Christmas." Jake added as he gave Jari a pat on the back.

Jari saw the sad look in Steffy's face and felt bad for being so callous. "I'm so sorry Steffy, do you want to talk about it?"

"My dad died when I was three." Steffy tried to put on a brave front but was failing as Clare and Alli went over to their friend and wrapped their arms around her. "How can you miss someone that you don't even remember? My mom tells me all the time that Christmas was his favorite time of the year, in fact right around Thanksgiving, he would always play Christmas music."

Jari smiled at how fondly Steffy spoke of her father and decided to share a story of his own as tears started to pour out of Steffy's eyes. "You know my dad's corny, he bought my mom a bracelet as a wedding present and every year, he gets her a new charm. She always knows she's going to get it but acts surprised and gets emotional and weepy."

Clare and Alli were comforting Steffy as Emma looked at Steffy in sympathy. "That's cheesy." remarked Eli as he grabbed some kleenex off of Jari's nightstand and handed it to Steffy.

"But sweet." Clare smiled as Alli swatted at Eli who ducked away from her, she was looking at the significance of the stories that Jari and Steffy exchanged rather than the cheesiness of it like Eli.

Alli rolled her eyes at Eli. "You're such a guy Eli."

"Thanks for the compliment Alli." Eli smirked at his friend.

Jake was looking out of the window. "Hey guys, look." an emotional Jari and Steffy then followed Jake's gaze out of the window.

"It stopped!" exclaimed Jari, before he and his friends had a chance to get _too_ excited, Steffy's mother called her from downstairs.

"We'd better get down here." insisted Eli as Jari and the others nodded in agreement, even though they hadn't had the chance to get too excited about the snow storm being over, Jari was thrilled and had a feeling that his friends were too. Jari even felt less guilty for letting Fiona talk him into it, but now the snow was gone, he had nothing to worry about and his father would be able to come home.

***

The Coleman Home

"So, that's what this is for." Joey said as he roasted marshmallows at the fire place in the sun room later that night with Diane and Jari. Ever since the weather machine had turned off, the family had stuck _close_ together in order to celebrate since no storm meant the flights would open up and allow Mike to come home.

"I'm glad you're not busy Mom." commented Jari, all of his friends had gone home and would return tomorrow. "We don't get to do this often."

"Why do you two think I'm busy all the time?" Diane asked her sons, she thought that she had made more than enough time for her kids.

"Because you are." both Jari and Joey said in unison.

"I'm sorry." Diane apologized to her sons, realizing that she had been a little _too_ preoccupied with work. "It's just at work, it really gets busy around the holidays, I promise things will calm down around new years."

"I hope Dad gets to come back home for Christmas." Jari said, despite the storm being over for the moment, flights needed time to open up and then once they did, it would _still_ take some time before the plane even arrived in Wilmington.

Joey agreed as he ate some of his marshmallow. "Me too."

The three were in silence for a few minutes before Diane's laughter broke it. "Well don't worry boys, your father is going to be home because the storm is over! It's over!" exclaimed Diane and then smiled as Jari and Joey started chuckling.

***

The Coleman Home Jari's Room The Next Day

"It turned back on by itself." Jari explained to Emma, Paige, KC, Drew, Hazel, Sean, and Jenna, and Johnny as the eight of them walked into his room that morning. He had woke up bright and early to discover that it was snowing outside, the weather machine had _somehow_ turned itself back on, and it _wouldn't_ turn off no matter what he tried. Not knowing what else to do, he called all his friends and asked them to come over.

"Have you tried turning it off?" Emma asked Jari who nodded his head in response, that's when the blond realized that they were in deep trouble, if the machine wouldn't turn off, who knew what could happen?

"Well, we just might've caused the next ice age." quipped Jari.

Sean walked over to Jari's window and took the machine out and tried to turn it off. "Well that's not working."

"He just said that it wouldn't turn off." Paige stated to Sean as she and Hazel rolled their eyes.

Sean glared at the queen bee. "Well I don't see you coming up with anything." A few of the others such as Drew, Johnny, and KC started snickering and Jari sighed as Sean and Paige started arguing, with them being a bad boy and cheerleader, they fought all the time despite their friendship. When Sean _wasn't_ arguing with Paige, he sometimes clashed with Hazel as well.

Emma rolled her eyes as the two continued to argue, not that it wasn't entertaining, but they didn't have time for it. "Can you two grow up for five seconds?"

"Guys, we do have a real problem." Hazel said as she tried to stop Sean and Paige's argument and then she turned to Jari. "Well what are we going to do?"

Anya, Leia, Connor, Wesley, and Dave then walked in. "Well we're not going to panic for one." said Anya.

"How can we not panic?" Jari asked Anya. "We messed up."

Leia smiled. "That doesn't mean we can't do something."

"Why don't we just destroy the machine?" suggested Dave and then everyone looked at him like he was psycho. "Okay, bad idea."

"We don't know the damage that could cause." Wesley said.

"We have to do something Wesley." replied Jari.

Wesley smirked as he started to walk over to the machine. "I might have some ideas."

Jari sighed as he stared at the weather machine. "I'm up for anything at this point." he was about to speak when Diane's voice called him from downstairs, the preteen groaned as he handed the weather machine to Paige who placed it back into the window.

"Come on." said Emma as she linked arms with Jari and the two of them walked downstairs followed by the others.

***

The Coleman Home Foyer

"I just got off the phone with your Dad." Diane sighed as Jari, Joey, and Jari's friends stood in front of her, she hated to be the one to have to break this news to her sons, knowing that it would _crush_ them. "The storm is still going on, everything's snowed out and _all_ the flights have been cancelled."

"So, Dad's not coming home for Christmas?" Jari asked Diane.

Diane's eyes were watery as she responded. "I'm so sorry."

"This isn't fair!" complained Joey as tears filled his eyes as well, he was then pulled into the arms of his mother, his father not being home for Christmas was completely _unreal_ to him and had never happened before. Jari started crying as well as Jenna pulled him into a hug, everything was completely ruined and the _only_ person that he could blame was himself.

KC looked at his friend concerned. "Are you okay Jari?"

"Come here." Jenna closed her eyes as she let her friend let his emotions out on her shoulder.

Jari broke down even more as he lost his footing. "My father's not coming home."

"That sucks." Chantay looked at him sadly.

"Easy." Drew said, catching his friend before he could fall since Jenna had been caught off-guard and didn't respond fast enough. "It's going to be okay."

"Did you not hear what my mother said Drew? No, it's not!" hollered Jari.

"Please stop crying hun." Paige pleaded, not liking to see her friend in the hurt state he was in.

Fitz  _couldn't_ imagine the pain that Jari was going through. "Paige, that's not helping."

"Let him cry if he wants." added Owen.

"Maybe she's got the right idea." said Johnny, causing glares from KC and Jenna.

"Shut up Johnny." Darcy said as she glared at him.

"I can't." said Jari, the tears wouldn't stop falling even if he wanted them to, he was way _too_ upset.

Johnny wasn't normally one for heartfelt moments and didn't consider himself good at comforting people when they were upset. "You can Jari." he tried to calm his friend down.

"I wish there was something I could do." said Jenna as she felt KC put his arms around her shoulders, she knew that no matter what she told Jari, her friend would _continue_ to be in pain.

"You can't Jenna." Jari told her.

Jenna sighed as she pulled a sobbing Jari back onto her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"It still doesn't change anything." Jari sighed before tearing himself away from Jenna and running upstairs. "My father's not coming home!" he stopped at the stairs before the preteen continued the rest of the way to his room, even though his friends were trying to help, they couldn't magically make his father be home for Christmas.

***

The Coleman Home Garage Later That Day

"How many times do I have to apologize?" Hazel asked as she walked toward the garage with Jari, Rick, Steffy, Emma, Ashley, Terri, Alex, and Ellie.

After Jari spent almost an hour bawling his eyes out for causing his father not to be home for Christmas, his friends had come up to check on him and they tried to figure out how to fix the problem, but it _wasn't_ that easy to come up with solution. An argument started after Paige called Holly's J barbaric and ended after Hazel called Jari _chicken_ for not stopping Fiona and Holly J. Despite Hazel feeling bad and apologizing to him immediately afterwards, Jari was still annoyed with her, the group of friends then talked again and surprisingly Hazel came up with the idea to put the machine in a led box in order to _stop_ it's rays from getting out. Even Jari had to admit that was a good idea, despite his annoyance at his friend. Paige and Spinner then teamed up to distract Diane and Joey since Jari's mom _didn't_ want him going outside with the electricity going out, and though they were nearly exposed by Joey and Angie, Sav and Anya bribed the two of them.

"Ask me again on New Years." snorted Jari, Hazel knew how guilty he was feeling, but yet she still chose to rub salt in his woods.

"Well, where's the led box?" Rick asked as the group walked into the garage, Hazel then glared at Rick for interrupting her apology, and the latter only ignored her.

When Jari, Rick, and the girls walked into the garage, the light flashed for a few seconds before completely going out, it wouldn't be a problem but since Alex had shut the door, the room was completely pitch black.

"Ah!"

"Ahh!" More than one voice not belonging to Jari or his friends screamed in panic as feet got stopped on, people were shoved from unknown hands, and when the light finally turned back on, everyone screamed. When Jari and his friends tried to leave the garage, two elves resembling a teenager and a younger boy, Inuyasha and Kohaku stopped them while the same old man that they had seen at the shack earlier gave them a stern look.

Jari moved slightly behind Alex for protection. "Who are you?"

"I'm Santa Claus." the old man responded. "Jari Coleman, you're number two hundred and fifty on my Wilmington boy naughty list."

"No, you're not!" exclaimed Alex.

"Santa isn't even real." Ashley agreed.

Steffy raised her eyebrows. "Why don't you three get out of here before I-"

"Stephanie Forrester, when you're alone, you like to play a Jay Sean CD before dancing around and pretending that you're married to him." Santa said. Hazel and Alex were snickering at this news.

"You do?" Jari asked Steffy as he held back laughter, wanting to know if the old man was telling the truth.

"No!" panicked Steffy.

"Would you like me to go on?" Santa asked Steffy who shook her head and then Santa turned to Jari. "Jari Coleman, you, your mother, father, and even little Joey are so busy running around that you don't have time for each other and even though you act like it doesn't bother you, it does."

"You never told me that." Emma was surprised, in all the years that she had known Jari, this was one thing that she never knew about her friend.

Jari sighed before turning to look at the duo standing behind him. "So, if you're Santa-"

"Then who are they?" Terri finished.

Inuyasha looked annoyed as he glanced at the the teens and preteens. "I'm Inuyasha and this is Kohaku, we're two of Santa's best elves."

"But aren't you supposed to be two feet tall?" asked Ellie.

"With squeaky voices?" Jari continued.

Inuyasha then leaned down and glanced back and forth between Ellie and Jari as he spoke. "Do you have a problem with that?" he asked the two who quickly shook her heads.

"Time is wasted." Santa said. "Now where's the machine?" the garage door then opened and Joey and Angie ran into the room, both of them were _soaked_ and had panicked looks on their faces, Jari figured that they decided to play around with the machine after finding it.

"There is a crazy woman after us." confessed Joey as Emma walked over to Angie and hugged her.

"I told you to stay out of my room!" Jari chided but then realized what his younger brother had said. "What woman?"

"It's mine!" a woman named Brooke Logan said as she barged into the garbage and ripped the machine out of Joey's hands. "From now on, I'm going to be the greatest weather woman ever, because I will control the weather."

"She's been crazy ever since my dad left her." Steffy informed Santa and the elves, Taylor had told her about how Brooke and her father _used_ to date in high school, but when the woman's infatuation turned into obsession, her father had dumped Brooke and her sanity hadn't been the same ever since.

Brooke glared at her. "That's not true!"

"Save it Brooke." Steffy rolled her eyes.

"Brooke, give me the machine." Santa called out as Brooke shook her head and backed away from him. "Brooke!" he tried again only to be ignored as Brooke ran out of the garage. "After her!" he, the elves, Jari and his friends then ran out of the garage after Brooke while Joey and Angie decided to go round up the others to help.

***

Santa's Cabin

Brooke had ran into a candy factory near Jari's house when Santa, the elves, Jari, and his friends caught up to her, the blond woman had a good hiding place but the _chocolate footprints_ that she had left behind gave her away, in her haste to avoid being caught, she had fell into a vat of chocolate and tripped into a box of bulk cotton candy. The machine had nearly been destroyed when Brooke tried to run, but Jari had dived for it and caught it as it hit the ground. Inuyasha and Kohaku refused to let Brooke and the woman was _forced_ to accompany the group back to Santa's cabin, Santa had planned to fix the machine and stop the snowstorm, before leaving. Santa had checked everything over with the machine but when he, Jari, and the others waited for it to turn on and start working properly, nothing had happened.

"What's wrong?" Jari asked Santa.

Santa grumbled as he leaned back in his seat, the machine was placed on a small workshop bench in front of him. "I don't get it, I've checked everything over but it's still not working."

"Maybe you should check the batteries." insisted Blue, the others looked at him as if he was stupid, this was Santa they were talking about, of course the man would've made sure that batteries were fixed.

"I use evermerries, every brand lasts about a hundred years." Santa said but tapped his chin when he realized something. "Oh drat, I ran out of evermerries and used generic ones." he then asked Jari to hand him a pack of _evermerries_ while he opened the battery compartment of the weather machine, Santa then put the new batteries in the machine and turned it on, as he and the others all waited. Brooke tried to get up to leave, but was quickly stopped by Kohaku and Inuyasha.

Kelly then watched as the machine turned on. "It worked!"

"Yes!" Connor smirked as Kelly high-fived him.

"Can we still make Christmas?" Kohaku asked Santa.

Santa nodded. "It'll be tight, but I believe we can. Pack up everything we need here." he ordered as Kohaku and Inuyasha started packing up their belongings from the cabin. "We also need to get you all home."

Jari asked Santa the question that had been plaguing his mind all day. "Santa, why am I on the naughty list?"

"As a friend to Jay, Spinner, Sean, Alex, Fitz, Owen, and Bianca, you and your other friends are either directly or indirectly involved in their antics." Santa then raised an eyebrow at the eight mentioned who shrinked back at his gaze. "But Jari, that will change if you've learned something today."

***

Epilogue.

Santa fixed the machine, causing the neverending snowday to finally come to an end, before Santa left though, Jari did whisper in his ear and ask him a _favor_. The next morning, it was Christmas, Jari and Joey decided to wait for their father to come home before opening any presents and Diane asked them if they were about it since the flights had just opened up again and let them know that it was possible that their father wouldn't even be home that day. The two of them assured Diane that it was okay, and then Jari looked at Christmas tree and saw that a note from Santa was on it.

The horn from a car blared from outside and when Diane, Joey, and Jari looked out the window, they realized that Mike was in the car and it was being driven by Inuyasha with Kohaku in the passenger's seat. Once Inuyasha and Kohaku drove off, Mike gave Diane a new charm bracelet and just as Jari predicted, his mother got weepy and emotional upon laying her eyes on it. Steffy and the rest of Jari's friends them came over and they all goofed around while Taylor, Mike, and Diane talked, they had truly learned their lesson and Jari looked up into the sky and told Santa thank you for bringing his family together on Christmas. Santa had confronted Brooke in the cabin and found out why the woman acted the way she did, after a long chat with her about being good from now on, Brooke had been sent to Antartica where she could share her theories about the weather with people who were actually interested.

**Author's Note:**

> This is all that I have to write for this story, thanks for reading. There may or may not be a sequel out eventually.


End file.
